WTN: '01 Cabernet Franc, Hosmer, Cayuga Lake

2001 Cabernet Franc, Hosmer, Cayuga Lake, NY:

Cab Franc is considered one of the more sucessful red grapes grown in the Finger Lakes, and Hosmer is one of the consistently good producers. Time to see how a bottle with some age is holding up.

Color is fairly deep and showing just a small degree of bricking. Very effusive nose, with some currant jam, tobacco leaf and slight VA/funk. On the palate the feel is silken yet crisp, with some nice black current/raspberry, a bit of bitter chocolate and more tobacco. Ripe, with very little in the way of green notes (just enough to let you think CF). This has really matured well into an integrated whole which is intense but not cumbersome. I hope they are still using real corks on the recent bottlings, as this has aged nicely (they use synthetic corks on the '07 rieslings). Well priced at about $15. 13.1 % abv.

Joe, why don't you just give them a ringy ding and ask them. In our experience cork is getting very hard to find in the Finger Lakes. Since we don't give the wines we get there a lot of time in the celler, why don't find this to be a problem.

Joe, why don't you just give them a ringy ding and ask them. In our experience cork is getting very hard to find in the Finger Lakes. Since we don't give the wines we get there a lot of time in the celler, why don't find this to be a problem.

I've had that discussion with several FL winemakers and a few insisted that the synthetic closures were best. In the spring I'll likely stop by Hosmer and mention how well I thought some of their wines age under real cork (their rieslings can age well, too). The winemaker at McGregor agreed with the poor aging of the synthetic stoppers and regretted using them for a period. To bad his pricing has gone haywire lately. Interestingly, Lakewood Vineyards is the local agent for one of the cork producers. Seems like some of the quality producers (Wiemer, Frank, Lamoreaux...) never flirted with synthetics. Anyone there using screwcaps yet?

Anyone [in the Finger Lakes] using screwcaps yet?

Tierce Riesling, produced jointly by Fox Run, Anthony Road, and Red Newt, is bottled under screwcap.